Canadian TV Host Suspended, Then Fired After Appearing on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'

Dec 14, 2017 // 1:14pm

As seen on Tucker Carlson Tonight

A Canadian TV host and liberal politician lost his job after an appearance two weeks ago on Tucker Carlson Tonight.

Stephen LeDrew was back on the show Wednesday to discuss his suspension and firing by Canadian broadcaster CP24.

LeDrew was on the show with Tucker in late November to discuss LGBT issues, including teachers being forced to attend "LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP" inclusiveness training.

The interview made headlines and apparently ruffled some feathers in Canada, Tucker said.

LeDrew said Bell Media, operator of CP24, immediately suspended him for seven days for violating its code of conduct by appearing on a "competitor" network.

LeDrew said he was fired after he urged his bosses to explain to the public why he was suspended.

"They said, 'well now you're fired because you're mocking us, no one likes to be ridiculed.' It was a ridiculous decision," he said, adding it was the decision of one person at the otherwise "great" organization.

Carlson said LeDrew should come to the United States, where he would be welcomed as a "free speech refugee."

"The irony is we were talking about freedom of speech in Canada. You were saying, 'you can say whatever you want in Canada' and I said, 'I don't think you can.' And you got fired for saying that!" Carlson said.

( a CP24 co host was supposedly fired just for appearing on Fox news and giving an interview for the Sun newspaper , like seriously ? there has always been a sense some in the media are biased and don't like other networks but this really seems to confirm that )

Stephen LeDrew calls reasons for his firing from CP24 ‘baloney’

Former co-host of Live at Noon says his termination was unrelated to his comments on two-spirited people.

Stephen LeDrew, co-host of Live at Noon on CP24 before he was fired this week by the network, says he was terminated for reasons he called “ridiculous” and “baloney.”

By Victoria GibsonStaff Reporter

Wed., Dec. 13, 2017

Stephen LeDrew, co-host of Live at Noon on CP24 before he was fired this week by the network, says he was terminated for reasons he called “ridiculous” and “baloney.”

The political commentator said he was fired Monday following a week-long suspension after he went on the Fox News program Tucker Carlson Tonight. The appearance included a discussion that questioned an extended acronym for the queer community used in education inclusivity training.

LeDrew sparked heated criticism on social media for his remarks about those who identify as two-spirited — an Indigenous term for someone embodying both a masculine and feminine spirit — who he said were “clearly confused.”

But LeDrew told the Star that it wasn’t the content of the debate that got him fired. He said it was the fact he appeared on Fox — and gave an interview about his suspension to the Toronto Sun — that irked CP24.

“They were very cheesed off,” LeDrew said.

Scott Henderson, a spokesperson for Bell Media — which owns CTV and CP24 — told the Star this week that LeDrew’s suspension was a “result of his violation of the CTV news policy and code of conduct.”

LeDrew’s discipline began on Nov. 30, when he said was called in by Joanne MacDonald, vice-president, CTV News, and general manager, CP24.

“ ‘You were on Fox last night,’ ” LeDrew recounted her saying. “And I said ‘yes!’ And she said, ‘well, it’s contrary to your employment terms!’ And I said, ‘well, I’m not an employee.’

“ ‘ Well, it’s contrary to CTV policy,’ ” she said, according to LeDrew. “And I said, ‘why? I’m not paid by them. I went on as a guest!’ ”

The crux of the issue, LeDrew said, was that CP24 felt that Fox was their competition. He told MacDonald that was “baloney.” That evening, he received a call from human resources to say he was suspended without pay.

“It was on-script, and it was a long script, so I didn’t pay much attention,” he said.

He added that he was made to sign a “gag order,” which acknowledged that he was never to write articles, go on any radio or any other TV shows.

After the suspension, the producers of Tucker Carlson Tonight called LeDrew.

“They liked my debate with Tucker,” LeDrew said. “And then I said, ‘well, it must have been pretty good. I got suspended!’ ”

After he was interviewed by the Toronto Sun about the suspension, LeDrew was then asked to meet with the president of CTV News on Monday morning. After some discussion, he said he received a letter of termination.

“You are fired from CP24 because, not exact language, but it was because I had appeared on Fox News and I gave interviews to Canadian media — to the Sun, there was only one — which put CP24 and CTV News and Bell Media in a poor light,” LeDrew told the Star.

“At no point during any of the discussion — there was only two letters — was my answer on two-spirited ever mentioned. It wasn’t my interview or the content or anything I said or did not say. It was simply because I appeared as a guest on Fox Network.”

He declined to provide the Star with either of the letters from Bell Media.

“I probably shouldn’t,” he said. “That will drive everyone over the wall.”

The comeback didn’t happen. Instead, the former Toronto mayoral candidate said he was called into an office where “people were snarling at me.” It turns out the suspension for his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s FOX News program is not the only punishment.

The one-time Liberal Party of Canada’s president found himself in trouble for a Dec. 1 appearance on Carlson’s show where he defended a 15-letter acronym LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP being used in schools to protect against bullying.

LeDrew defended it to a skeptical Carlson but, he said, Bell Media decided to admonish him for “going on a competitor’s show without prior permission.”
related linksCP24’s Stephen LeDrew suspended over ‘code of conduct’ conflict

LeDrew, a lawyer, said he was asked to sign a letter of apology that would allow him back on the air Dec. 8.

“I was worried the wording of the letter would not let me talk to law society events or the kids at Ryerson, but I was going to sign it because I wanted to get back on,” he said.

But after pushing his comeback date to Dec. 11, he was kept from the studio when he arrived.

“I was later ushered out and not allowed to go and get my coat,” he said. “I guess I shouldn’t have giggled when CTV news told me that Fox was its competition.”

LeDrew, who wished he could have said goodbye to his “terrific” colleagues, said he was also told he should not have done media interviews following his suspension.

Bell has not commented other than to say “Stephen LeDrew is no longer with Bell Media.”

It is disappointing because as a viewer and occasional guest, I think Stephen was very good at his job. He did it with professionalism, style and flare for seven years.

If there was a story in Toronto, LeDrew was the place on TV where viewers and newsmakers would go. That he could be dismissed over this seems over the top. How are characters and free thinkers to work in this kind of environment? TV and radio needs to be edgy and controversial instead of rigid and politically correct.

LeDrew doesn’t believe this was because of his “fish or fowl, frick of frack” answer to explaining the definition of what a “two spirited” person is but more about appearing without clearance and “that I talked with the press.”

Ironic, he was talking about free speech on the show.

“They just want everybody under their thumb,” said LeDrew. “I am OK. It just means I will be able to spend more time with my family over the holidays.”

But after that, LeDrew said he will be available to do commentary.

“This is a serious time in our country,” he said. “I will still talk about important issues.”

I saw the interview, and he has a breezy, fresh-air approach on television. But he had an impossible task. How do you defend closing down free speech so a variety of low-life sexual practitioners have their dignity protected? These people are defined by their genitals because they don't have anything else much to recommend them. Dignity? They are apt to have spikes in their tongues and tattoos of snakes around their necks.

It's one step away from tattooing a swastika in the middle of your forehead, and rhen complaining because nobody will give you a job.

I cannot imagine a harder thing to support and keep a straight face. And he was stuck because now the LGBTQWERTY list has become so long that nobody, literally nobody, can recite every sexual preference now being given official recognition.

So there you have, on national TV, a big blowhard caught short. It was good.

Ironically, LeDrew was making the claim that Canada has free speech and that trans-rights do not threaten civil liberties -- and then he goes home and is fired. Probably because he said the wrong thing.

That's the way this works -- it doesn't throw you in the gulag, it just gets you fired.

It turns out they did want to shut him up. What media company wants to come out and admit that it's for shutting down freedom of the press? But on the other hand, LeDrew violated the blackout, I think, when he drew attention to how 'progressive Canada' had replaced free speech with the much more civil notion of 'supervised speech'.

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